Pets visiting Canine Design Grooming Studio will not only be bathed and groomed but they will be pampered with aromatherapy, a television and personal attention.
Owner Marci Linsenbardt, moved to the current location at 3224 W. 16th St. two years ago. The new space increased the floor space from 300 square feet to 1,100. The additional space allowed her to hire five employees, Chris Tormollan, of Versailles, Stephanie Vasquez, of Marshall, and Lauren Yeager, Chris Randolph and Angelina Lutjen, all of Sedalia. The extra space also allows the staff to groom 100 pets a week or approximately 20 a day, giving them personal attention.
“I purchased the business about 14 years ago from Suzy Williams,” Linsenbardt said on Friday at her shop. “I started grooming in 1985.”
She added that groomer Tormollan also has approximately 30 years experience. Vasquez is her newest groomer.
“Stephanie just got out of grooming school,” Linsenbardt added. “She’s been working for me since about March, but she is amazing.”
Linsenbardt credits her love for animals as the reason for taking up grooming as a career. She also enjoys seeing the transformation.
“I enjoy working with animals,” she said. “I think it’s the artistic side of me. I like the artistic part of being able to take a dog that’s dirty and making them pretty.”
One thing that sets the shop apart from other groomers is the ability for customers to bathe their own pets late in the afternoon.
“We have self-serve,” Linsenbardt said. “We like to do that in the evening whenever we’re not so busy, like between 4 and 6 (p.m.). People can come in and bathe their own pets. We help them, we show them how to to do it. We have a hydro-surge shampooing system. It sprays shampoo and water out, kind of like a car wash. Then we have a high velocity dryer that they can use to blow dry their dog.”
The cost for self-serve bathing ranges from $10 to $25, depending on the size of the pet and the length of the fur.
Canine Design, a full-service studio, also offers cat grooming and bathing plus teeth brushing for pets. The staff works in two shifts.
“We have some that come in the morning and they are usually done at noon or early afternoon,” Linsenbardt noted. “Then we have some that come in the afternoon and they are done between 4 and 6 p.m.”
While at Canine Design the staff treats pets are with care and consideration.
“In our kennel room we have a television going in there,” Linsenbardt said. “What I try to do is make the dog feel at home. We have aromatherapy going on … in that room we have eucalyptus and a calming oil.
“A lot of groomers use heated dryers on their dogs in the kennels, we don’t do that,” she added. “Because we don’t think its fare to trap a dog with heat, it’s uncomfortable. So, we use box fans to dry them. From the bath tub to the drying room we get a lot of the water off before they get a fan on them. That gives them a chance to relax in front of the fan and wait for their haircut.”
Linsenbardt noted that each pet is considered as the customer’s baby, and they take care of them as such.
“We want them to be comfortable,” she said. “The more comfortable they are the better they are for us. These are our customers’ babies, and I think about that. We know we can’t love them as much as the owners, but we try too. We think about the fact that this is someone’s baby and we treat them that way.”
Sometimes Linsenbardt pet-sits for customers and she’s found that each dog has it’s own personalty.
“Sometimes here they are scared and they are nervous, even though we are kind to them, they are nervous because they are away from their owner,” she noted. “But sometimes I babysit dogs, and take them home, and their personalities are totally different than I expected. I just fall in love with them and I don’t want to send them back.”
Canine Design Grooming Studio, 3224 W. 16th St. at Stone Creek Plaza, opens at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. They close for the day between 4 and 6 p.m. For more information or for an appointment call Marci Linsenbardt at 660-826-7721
